Monday, September 15, 2014

TLC Book Tours: Flings: Stories by Justin Taylor

From Goodreads.com: "In a new suite of
powerful and incisive stories, Justin Taylor captures the lives of men
and women unmoored from their pasts and uncertain of their futures.

A
man writes his girlfriend a Dear John letter, gets in his car, and just
drives. A widowed insomniac is roused from malaise when an alligator
appears in her backyard. A group of college friends try to stay close
after graduation, but are drawn away from-and back toward-each other by
the choices they make. A boy's friendship with a pair of identical twins
undergoes a strange and tragic evolution over the course of
adolescence. A promising academic and her fiancée attempt to finish
their dissertations, but struggle with writer's block, a nasty secret,
and their own expert knowledge of Freud.

From an East Village
rooftop to a cabin in Tennessee, from the Florida suburbs to Hong Kong,
Taylor covers a vast emotional and geographic landscape while ushering
us into an abiding intimacy with his characters. Flings is a commanding
work of fiction that captures the contemporary search for identity,
connection, and a place to call home."

My Two Cents:

"Flings" is a great collection of short stories by Justin Taylor. Each story is a wholly individual story. Each story is just a snapshot of different people's lives. Each of those lives is very different and unique. If you like short stories with vivid characters and great detail, you will enjoy this collection of interestingly detailed stories.

The real treat in this book is how Taylor is able to take all of these different characters and give them their own individual voices. Admittedly, I often stay away from short stories because sometimes they feel incomplete to me (they are definitely growing on me though). One thing that Taylor did that makes this collection stand apart from any other collection is that he is able to very quickly lay out detailed worlds within each individual story, which has a tendency to engage the reader right off the bat. The stories definitely do not feel incomplete!

It's easy to tell that this book is going to be a big hit. Short stories are seeing an uprising in popularity and with authors like Taylor at the forefront, it's not hard to see why. Taylor rights writes with a sense of humor as well as great gravitas that really captures some of the beautiful and interesting moments in a person's life. Here even the ordinary is extraordinary.

While some stories I liked better than others, overall this book is a very good story collection. I know that I will be looking out for more by Justin Taylor in the future.

My Badges

About Me

I have always loved to read. I decided to get into book blogging to share the books I love with other fellow readers! For any questions, comments, concerns or just to chat, shoot me an email at abookishaffair(at)gmail(dot)com ! I usually respond to emails quickly!
All opinions on this blog are my own, regardless of where I got the book!